How Bacteria can use electrical signals to invade the body
Gut bioelectricity provides a path for bad bacteria to cause diseases
By Nadine A Yehya
Study discovers an electric current in the gut that attracts pathogens like Salmonella
(SACRAMENTO)
How do bad bacteria find entry points in the body to cause infection?
This question is fundamental for infectious disease experts and people who study bacteria. Harmful pathogens, like Salmonella, find their way through a complex gut system where they are vastly outnumbered by good microbes and immune cells. Still, the pathogens navigate to find vulnerable entry points in the gut that would allow them to invade and infect the body.
A team of UC Davis Health researchers has discovered a novel bioelectrical mechanism these pathogens use to find these openings. Their study was published today in Nature Microbiology.
Bacteria breaking through the gated gut
In response to a directional electric field of 2 V cm−1, E. coli (in red) and Salmonella (in green) simultaneously and exclusively migrate towards the anode and the cathode, respectively.
Salmonella cause about 1.35 million illnesses and 420 deaths in the United States every year. To infect someone, this pathogen needs to cross the gut lining border.
“When ingested, Salmonella find their way to the intestines. There, they are vastly outnumbered by over 100 trillion good bacteria (known as commensals). They are facing the odds of one in a million!” said the study’s lead author Yao-Hui Sun. Sun is a research scientist affiliated with the Departments of Internal Medicine, Ophthalmology and Vision Science, and Dermatology.
To learn how Salmonellae find their way in the intestine, the researchers observed the movement of S. Typhimurium bacteria (a strain of Salmonella) and compared it to that of a harmless strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria.
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